Food pantries hit with rise in people needing help

Some are professionals who lost their job

A new study released through SUNY New Paltz confirms what every volunteer at food pantries across the mid-Hudson region sees every day: a food safety net that's being stretched to its limits, while needs escalate and resources diminish.You only have to stop by a place like Kingston's People's Place this time of year. Peop...

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By JEREMIAH HORRIGAN

recordonline.com

By JEREMIAH HORRIGAN

Posted Nov. 22, 2012 at 2:00 AM

By JEREMIAH HORRIGAN
Posted Nov. 22, 2012 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

A new study released through SUNY New Paltz confirms what every volunteer at food pantries across the mid-Hudson region sees every day: a food safety net that's being stretched to its limits, while needs escalate and resources diminish.
You only have to stop by a place like Kingston's People's Place this time of year. People line up patiently for bags containing a holiday turkey and trimmings. Call them the working poor. Call them professionals who can't replace the jobs they thought they'd never lose. Call them folks in need.
Though the report focuses on Ulster County, hunger and its social tolls aren't limited to to a single county. Hunger doesn't recognize borders.

Christine Hein is the calm eye at the center of a hurricane of holiday need at People's Place Food Pantry and Thrift Store. Phones ring, babies bawl. Hein smiles despite the chaos. The need for public awareness is as strong as the need for donations
She said she's seen a 39 percent increase in the number of people served since October 2011. Then she points to 40-foot row of four-shelf storage racks that are standing empty.
“They were full – crammed with food – just yesterday.”

The pantry serves more than 500 families and is open every weekday. Just to stay in operation costs roughly $4,000 a month in rent, utilities and taxes. Hein is the only salaried employee; as with other food pantries, labor is provided by volunteers. The pantry's thrift store helps offset some of those expenses, along with a small state grant.

“Hand-to-mouth” perfectly describes the situation pantries face.

Hein can't disguise the wonder in her voice as she describes common misperceptions that plague food pantries everywhere:

“People think that somehow only 'lazy people' come here. What I see are people who want nothing more than a job but they can't find one. Or people who work two jobs and still can't make the money they used to – professional people who've lost their jobs and even their homes.”

Lisa Cavanaugh, program director at Family of Ellenville, emphasized that the food pantry serves a diverse population:

“What happened in 2008, that's when we saw a lot of new people,” she said. “People in the building industry – carpenters and contractors – lost their homes. They would not believe they wouldn't get a break.”

In Orange County, John Strobel, treasurer of the Goshen Ecumenical Pantry, said “there are still a heckuva lot of people coming here.”

More sobering, he said, was the appearance of younger individuals and families at the food pantry.

Strobel emphasized how important it was and difficult it could be for an operation as small as Goshen to provide the sorts of services needed – the food drives, the need for vans, for scheduling, for bagging and being on hand when needed.

Kathy Kreiter, director of the Sullivan County Federation for the Homeless, said “we see more need every day.”

And she sees more. Kreiter sees people from every day, from every walk of life, forced to make choices, asking themselves questions that contain terrifying possibilities:

“More and more,” Kreiter said, “people are having to ask themselves, do I eat or do I pay my school taxes? Do I pay the heating bill or do I eat?”